Metamorphic Ga0.76In0.24As/GaAs0.75Sb0.25 tunnel junctions grown on GaAs substrates

Abstract

Lattice-matched and pseudomorphic tunnel junctions have been developed in the past for application in a variety of semiconductor devices, including heterojunction bipolar transistors, vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers, and multijunction solar cells. However, metamorphic tunnel junctions have received little attention. In 4-junction Ga0.51In0.49P/GaAs/Ga0.76In0.24As/Ga0.47In0.53As inverted-metamorphic solar cells (4J-IMM), a metamorphic tunnel junction is required to series connect the 3rd and 4th junctions. We present a tunnel junction based on a metamorphic Ga0.76In0.24As/GaAs0.75Sb0.25 structure for this purpose. This tunnel junction is grown on a metamorphic Ga0.76In0.24As template on a GaAs substrate. The band offsets in the resulting type-II heterojunction are calculated using the first-principles density functional method to estimate the tunneling barrier height and assess the performance of this tunnel junction against other material systems and compositions. The effect of the metamorphic growth on the performance of the tunnel junctions is analyzed using a set of metamorphic templates with varied surface roughness and threading dislocation density. Although the metamorphic template does influence the tunnel junction performance, all tunnel junctions measured have a peak current density over 200 A/cm2. The tunnel junction on the best template has a peak current density over 1500 A/cm2 and a voltage drop at 15 A/cm2 (corresponding to operation at 1000 suns) lower than 10 mV, which results in a nearly lossless series connection of the 4th junction in the 4J-IMM structure.